Relaxed and Organized

Bill has been gone all weekend for a family event: one sister getting married and one sister coming home from her mission. I was pretty nervous about how it would go with him gone. Usually by the end of each day about when he is coming home I'm totally worn out and ready beyond ready for him to get home to save the day.

So I thought this weekend was going to rock my socks off, but guess what? It didn't! It went really, really well. We had a great few days. There were quite a few remarkable things that happened that made me feel really blessed.

First, not even two hours after Bill left on Thursday we sat down for dinner and I asked Spencer if he would help me say a prayer. Keep in mind he always refuses. We keep trying but he never wants to say one. Well it felt like a little miracle when he said sure and happily repeated a prayer with my help! Ever since that first prayer he has prayed numerous times and is always happy to do it. It feels like a wonderful little breakthrough with him.

Second, again right after Bill left, Genevieve asked me if she could go poop in the toilet. And guess what? She went in there, sat down, did her business, and then happily came back and rejoined us in whatever we were doing. You might wonder why this is remarkable and worth blogging about. The thing is, she's not potty trained! She's only been two since the end of August. She's actually been asking to use the bathroom during diaper changes for a week or two now, which just blows me away. It's such a different story with a second child. But typically in my experience kids do not learn how to use the bathroom and understand when they need to use it without some coaching. She's just been super observant and is practically training herself. It feels like another miracle. I was going to wait longer because I dont' want to be potty training myself to take her every couple hours, but I think we're going to jump on it because she just seems so ridiculously ready even though She's way younger than we potty trained Spencer.

Friday I spent a good portion of the late morning and afternoon at a friend's house on an extra long playdate. I just love her so much. We have developed a fantastic friendship and I'm so happy about it. I don't always know how to reach out to others around me to develop friendships and so this makes me very happy. Our kids play together really well, which is just lovely. We did discover after the fact that the kids had destroyed some of her older kids' Lego creations. We felt pretty bad about that. But not only did we stay there for hours, but she sent us home with dinner. Seriously, she is always doing nice things like that and it makes me want to pay it forward to other friends and neighbors.

Friday night we went to a party a friend in the ward puts on each Halloween. It involves carving pumpkins and a movie on the side of their house and plenty of food and good talking with friends. I decided I would brave it even with all the kids. It went great! I have the best friends in our ward and community here. Everyone helped out when different kids had needs and it was wonderful to be there. I was so glad I went.

Saturday we stayed in and had a movie marathon sort of day. The kids were happy and we had fun and it was nice to not go anywhere all day. We did head over to our favorite Mennonite store Hochstetler's in the late afternoon to get some ice cream. And another little miracle happened. Spencer is very much a creature of habit and as I've talked about many, many times he struggles with food. He has one ice cream he has gotten every time we went that is bright and colorful and tastes awful to me, but he loves it. Last time we went though he ate more of what Bill and I got than his own, so this time I told him we weren't going to get the Superman flavor but instead he could pick any other flavor he wanted. He picked mint chip and he just inhaled it. It's kind of a huge deal every time he tries something new, so this kind of made me glow. :)

Today we went to church. I decided to skip singing in the choir this performance because it was one too many things to handle, and instead I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them sing the piece. They did a wonderful job. It got a little crazy there during sacrament meeting but we have a dear friend that has adopted our kids as her grandchildren and she took Aaron for a good portion of the three-hour block. Bless her. Her granddaughter came and played with the kids during sacrament meeting, and other than it getting a bit loud at times, she's only four, they had a good time together.

The afternoon has gone well save for a bit when I kind of crashed in exhaustion on the couch. Aaron and Genevieve were asleep but Spencer kept coming and poking me or pulling on my arm wanting me not to sleep. I just really wanted a nap, but it only sort of happened. That part wasn't so great, but we got past it and the day has been generally great.

I was reflecting on the weekend and realized that I had really not gotten bothered or mad about things the whole weekend. That's a miracle in itself. I've had a lack of patience lately that I've been struggling with. I feel like I was really blessed this weekend not to feel that way and now it makes me want to keep trying to have it be this way instead of being bothered all the time. I think the reason this was the case was I was a combination of two important things. I was relaxed but also organized. So I never really felt overwhelmed and the kids generally did what I wanted because I was organized about what I was doing. I think this is really important to remember so I can keep it up because I really enjoyed the time of not losing my temper for several days and I want to keep that up. Also, I realized that despite it being kind of a big deal to take all three kids out, sometimes they act way better and it turns out to be easier than staying home. This is a good thing to remember.

So there you go, that's how my weekend alone with the kids went. And here's a few pictures if you managed to get through this whole post. :)

They love to watch movies cuddled up on my bed.

I put some oil in her hair to get some dry skin off and we had a good time styling it after.

He crashed while we were watching a movie together. So cute.

I rotated toys this weekend and this one is the new favorite.

Projects

Bill and I had a funny conversation the other day. I tend to be able to do more of my interests than he does because they coincide better with things we need as a family than his do and we were talking about it. Though he has just gotten into hobby electronics and both of us can see lots of excellent uses for that in our life. :) I have found a lot of enjoyment out of family-enriching sorts of things in the last few years. Food storage, sewing, building furniture, crocheting, etc, I like all of them and it's not hard to justify buying things here and there to do that stuff.

I was just thinking this morning about working and what it's like to have a job and the whole rat race aspect of it. At the moment I have little to no interest in that. I am very happy with my stay-at-home mom role and I will be over the moon pleased when I can quit the job I do have. Hopefully that will coincide with a drastic increase in Bill's income and that will allow me to do more projects and things I enjoy. :) Being a stay-at-home mom is crazy hard some days, but it's so rewarding to me and I wouldn't trade it. It's pretty ridiculous how kids can take what parenting skills you think you have and throw them out the window. I can't count how many times lately I've run through all the skills I have and feel like I'm stretching for something, anything that will help me work with my kids and teach them what they need to know. So there's no lack of growth and development right now. I don't need a paycheck to make me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. As I was thinking these thoughts this morning I was pleased because it's nice to be in a place where I'm content with my role. That hasn't always been the case. I have dreams and goals in various aspects of my life, but they're not about changing what I do as much as improving on what I have. It's a really nice place to be.

So anyway, enough of those musings and onto the projects I've done lately, which are what made me think these thoughts in the first place. I don't have nearly as much discretionary money as I want to put into various projects, but I've been able to do a few things lately, Aaron's afghan last month, and this tree skirt this weekend. Thinking of Christmas this year triggered the thought that we still didn't have a tree skirt and we needed to buy or make one. So I turned to my trusty Google and Pinterest search, showed Bill a few options, one of which was far beyond my sewing abilities at the moment, and decided on the one I made. And then this weekend I made it. I decided it was high time I dipped my toe into the quilting world and this should not be surprising, I love it! The tree skirt turned out amazing and it didn't take that long to do, which is a huge plus for any project I do with three kids around I pieced it and put the batting and back on while the kids were playing around me on Thursday or Friday, then did the quilting part during naps and evenings and finally Saturday while Bill was home. I just love how it turned out and now I'm all excited to figure out other things to quilt. Good times!

Someone told me they couldn't tell how big this is. It's about 54 inches across, so plenty big for any tree.

And now that I have the crafting bug, this is a sneak peak of my next project. I had previously made Aaron a stocking back when I made all the other ones a year or so ago, before he was even conceived. Good thing he is a boy because his stocking certainly wouldn't work for a girl. I'll show off the rest once I'm finished adding his name. This is just in sharpie on it and I will be embroidering it in white. Should be exciting.

3 Months

Time always seems to fly when it comes to babies growing up. It feels both an eternity and like the blink of an eye since Aaron was born. He hit three months old just yesterday.  

A few things about Aaron at 3 months:

-He is still a very chill baby. Aside from not appreciating how loud his siblings can be right in his face at times, he is just very placid.

-He still sleeps all the time. He takes three or four naps a day, and most days he sleeps upwards of three hours either in the morning or afternoon.

-He has discovered his hands and they are always in his mouth now. I took a picture yesterday of him with all four fingers in his mouth with the biggest grin on his face.

-He has the best grin and he pulls it out all the time. He is super happy when he wakes up and after he eats and he just loves to smile at people. It's easier to catch his eye now and you can almost guarantee a big grin if he actually makes eye contact.

-He's started laughing this month. It's particularly cute when the other two kids get him to laugh. They did it this morning right after he had woken up and was still in his little crib. They came in and started talking to him and got him to laugh. Once he starts he will keep laughing for a long time if you laugh with him. It's pretty fantastic.

-He's still growing like a weed. He weighed 15 pounds the last time I weighed him. He's wearing 6-9  month clothes and some of those are kind of small, depending on the brand. He's long and thin just like Spencer was. He is better at holding his head up these days, but he still can't really sit up, for instance in a bumbo chair, or his head falls over. I'm not surprised. It's kind of big. :)

And here are a few shots from his 3-month photo day:

Like I said, this is a happy kid. Who can't smile when they see a grin that big? 

My two favorite weekends of the year

We're lazing around the house in our pajamas, eating tasty food, building forts, and watching General Conference. I dearly love this weekend each Spring and Fall. I've loved so many of the messages today and can't wait to hear what is said tomorrow as well. Here's a few pictures of what the day has been like.

This was earlier this week, but it was about the same today. Hanging out on the bed, watching Conference on our computer, which happens to be in our room at the moment. The kids watched more movies today then they ever get to watch and played lots of tablet games. So I guess we're helping them to love this weekend too. :) Spencer loved the singing. In fact, he had a total meltdown when he saw the Priesthood Session choir didn't include any women. There was no reasoning with him. He just was so sad that the girls weren't there. My poor child.

Wherever Aaron is, the other two congregate. I spend more time keeping them from bonking his head or totally overwhelming him with kisses and hugs than I can count. They just adore him, though they're not super good at playing softly with him. The litany in our house that both of them repeat is, "Aaron is a person not a toy." Good times. 

Oh this girl and her red hair and porcelain skin! We're trying to let her hair grow out long enough to get behind her ears, but for now that means looking through a curtain of hair most of the time. She doesn't seem to mind yet.

I'm so happy she will smile for the camera now because she has the cutest smile and nobody far away has gotten to see it much until recently.

Then there was this time I forgot I had put a crayon in my pants pocket to take it out to the car. This is a sample of what all the clothes in this load look like. Fingers crossed we can get it out. The first effort didn't work because the water wasn't hot enough. We're currently working on round two of stain removal efforts. 

Busy, busy, busy

I was thinking about what to write on my blog this week and nothing super substantial came to mind. All I could really think about was that I'm having a moment of peace and quiet where all three kids are asleep and Bill had to go back to school to finish some things up and it made me think about how crazy life is at the moment. Three kids seems to be the tipping point of becoming supremely busy. It was a big transition when I had Spencer, not so much with Genevieve, and adding Aaron wasn't hard so much as just so much busier. I have hundreds of unread blogs on my Feedly where I used to read them every day. I haven't had a free moment to read blogs in days. When the kids go to bed at night I have so many things I could do that I just have to pick and choose. That's pretty much the same story with everything in my life.

I remember when my best friend first had her three boys it became nearly impossible to catch her to chat. I understood in theory that she was super busy, but now that I've hit the same point in my life it is so much more real. I rarely talk to anyone on the phone unless I'm driving somewhere and have a bit of time where everyone is strapped in. There are just too many needs going on all the time to talk while we're at home.

So is child number one hardest? Two? Three? Eh, I can't really say. They each had their challenges, and the sheer quantity of needs that come with three kids becomes overwhelming at times, but at the same time I have three adorable kids that I wouldn't trade for anything. I have found that getting away occasionally to recharge is absolutely essential now, whereas before it was just a nice thing to do now and again. I wouldn't change that we've chosen to have our kids so close together. It definitely makes it crazy right now.

I do sometimes pine for the future time when Bill is out of school and we have a little more financial flexibility as well as the kids being a tad older and the flexibility that will bring as their abilities to do things develop. But I also can't imagine my babies growing up and I love them at this stage, so I try to shelf that feeling pretty quickly. We are in a great situation now and I want to enjoy it, limitations and all. Every phase of life has its own set of limitations. This time will pass and there will be things about it I wish for in the future.

And such are my meandering thoughts at the moment. For your viewing pleasure, here's Aaron's latest darling picture that makes my heart melt. I need to get the camera out again because I haven't taken a single picture of the other kids for a week or two.

I thrive on order

I need order in my life. Especially I need order in my house. It gives me a sense of control of at least a little piece of my world. But well, I have three kids and apparently the best way to play with any toy is to first dump it in its entirety on the floor. So while I've somewhat given up the need to have toys picked up except at the end of the day, I'm always trying to find better ways to organize my house.

I'd really like to find a new place to live in a few months but I'm worried we won't find anything. Nothing is available at the moment. So this week I decided to move things around a bit in our current place. Genevieve has her own room now. The crib is in Spencer's room as well as our mini armchairs under the loft bed in n a reading area, plus a big pile of pillows to make nests for reading. Oh, and my closets are reorganized. Some people are great with just shoving stuff in them and shutting the doors, but that grates on me a bit so now they're all reorganized and my world feels ordered again. Simple pleasures.

Spencer slept in the crib the last couple nights. When he's not busy being in his tyrannical threes as I lovingly refer to them, he's such a fun little kid. :) Genevieve loves her new arrangement. Aaron napped in the crib a few times and seems to like it. He's still in our room at night but it's super nice to have multiple places to put him for naps. That's especially important since to do this reordering I had to put my computer in my room so we're in there a lot more now.

So like I said, simple pleasures that help me feel like I'm doing something besides spinning my wheels uselessly. That always makes me happy.

Spencer selfies

Genevieve selfies

Genevieve photo bombing Spencer's selfie

a duplo, because you know, we should always have a picture of a duplo.

And Aaron's HUGE mouth. He has seriously the best grin.

Rough times

Wow these last couple weeks have been rough! Both our A/C and dishwasher broke this last month and both have taken an inordinately long time to resolve, with the dishwasher still being in process. We spent from last Wednesday to yesterday stiflingly hot in an 83 or 84 degree house. It was awful. I never realized how frustrating life can be when you spend all day sweaty and sticky. With no A/C even if the house wasn't so hot it was super humid, so my fingers stuck together perpetually and other things like that. It wasn't fun. I made numerous frustrated phone calls, left tons of messages, and totally laid into our management yesterday before anything was done. We're actively in the hunt for a new place to live anytime between now and the end of our contract in December. It's an extremely frustrating place to be because renting in this area is super expensive and this has been a sweet deal for us. The cons are vastly outweighing the pros at this point though after living here for close to two years. The complex got acquired by an out of state management company six months or so ago and we have seen a whole bunch of incremental changes for the worse. However, there are very few places around here that are even big enough and most are way out of our price range. It's an awful feeling to feel like the status quo has to change but have no options for change. We found a fantastic place a couple days ago but someone else was able to grab it before we could sign a contract. So frustrating!

So that is the status at the moment around here. We're saying lots of prayers that something will come available soon that will work for us. Three months and counting.

Thank goodness the kids manage to stay ridiculously cute despite it all. They spent most of the last week in diapers or underwear so they'd sweat less. They certainly didn't mind.

Two months old already!

I was trying to take some 2-month photos, but they just wanted to be there with Aaron. I don't mind. :)

He has the biggest smile. It's amazing.

Spencer and Genevieve can't get enough of Aaron. It's heartwarming.

Picture Overload

It's been so hot since Aaron was born, and he is such a hot little baby anyway, that we haven't been able to wrap him up in blankets much at all without him being a sweaty puddle. But this morning it was a bit chilly in our house and this is how he napped all morning. I'd have slept for hours too if I had that kind of setup!

Spencer regularly makes little duplo things and then asks me to take pictures of them. So fun. 

This was Genevieve's birthday cake a day late. We munched on this for over a week. It was amazing. It was made from this cake and this frosting.

Bill hasn't been drumming much lately, but he pulled out his drum practice pad and he and the kids jammed it up a bit the other night. It was tons of fun until one or both of them started using the drumsticks as hitting sticks, and then that was the end of that. :)

They graciously posed for me to show off their interesting outfits of choice. 

Genevieve views Spencer's wardrobe as free game. That's his shirt and another day she wore his cowboy boots to our friend's house.

Kind of a weird out of focus picture, but sometimes Aaron explodes. That's the only way I can describe it. He doesn't regularly spit up, but occasionally, and it's happening less and less, he just empties his entire stomach. He got me one night like this and again the next morning. It's so ridiculous that I can't help but laugh and laugh. So, so, so gross.

It didn't stop him from falling asleep, spit upon and all.

Genevieve's latest choice of hats. 

What they're doing at the moment

Spencer:

-Is getting more and more capable of reasoning. He has learned how to ask for things very politely and it melts my heart when he says things like, "Mommy, may I take a bath, please?" or whatever else strikes his fancy. Turns out it's harder to say no when he asks like that. The flip side is he thinks if he asks nicely he is guaranteed to get what he wants. We have some pretty epic fits thrown over being told no. It's improving though.

-He loves to do headstands, which he refers to as headstanders. Genevieve joins him and they laugh and laugh and laugh.

-We had what feels like a small breakthrough in his eating habits and he has started trying a few new things we give him in trade for jelly bellies. It's not the most ideal method, but hey, new tastes crossing his tongue is so novel that I'll take small bribery to get it. He still can choose to say no, so it seems to be the right level of bribe, enough that it motivates him, not so much that he feels faired against if he says he doesn't want to try it.

-He is starting to talk to other people more and notice the folks in the world around him.

-He loves anything chocolate. He will do much for chocolate. :)

-He still has a memory like an elephant. He can count to 100 and gets the concept of numbers.

-He is "reading" a few words in Bill's Hooked on Phonics game on his phone. He knows all the letters and he's catching on a little bit. The few words he knows, "cat", "dog", he will point out when he finds them in our books we read.

-He is our little lover boy. He showers us with hugs and kisses, particularly Aaron and me to a slightly lesser degree.

-He absolutely adores Aaron and is pretty bothered when he's asleep. He's fairly oblivious to the needs of others to sleep, so he has no problem kissing him and getting right in his face to wake him up. In fact this morning he freaked out that I was still asleep and came and screamed an inch from my nose. Not his best moment. lol

-He is super independent. He can access just about anything he wants in our house and gets down whatever he wants to play with or see.

-By the same token he is very attached to my hip. He prefers me to anyone else and always wants me to help him over anyone else.

Genevieve:

-She turned two this week and is hard core into her terrible twos. We love her anyway.

-Her favorite phrases at the moment are "no," "no, not that one," and conversely "thank you." The first two drive us a little crazy, but the third sure is precious as she always says thank you whenever we give her something or do something for her.

-She has a scream like a banshee that she lets loose whenever she is displeased, which is often. Think terrible twos again. However, as soon as her issue is solved she stops immediately.

-She is also enthralled with Aaron. She is super sweet around him. She always wants to give him hugs and kisses. Both kids think it's utterly hilarious to give him raspberries on his stomach. He suffers their love quite well. :)

-She is smart as a whip. She has a really well developed vocabulary and speaks in full sentences with multiple things said each time. I'm constantly blown away by how well she can say what she wants. Watching kids develop their vocabulary never ceases to amaze me.

-She has always been shy of strangers and even people she knows that aren't her family. But she is coming out of her shell and really starting to talk to other people. She particularly likes other kids close to her age and she will follow them around at the park and she is pretty social. This surprises me as Spencer is more of a loner still.

-We're trying to get her bangs to grow long enough to go behind her ears. She hates having her hair done, so she has hair in her eyes virtually all the time. She has a double cowlick that makes it do the craziest things on the back of her head.

-She loves to climb and can get pretty much anywhere she wants to go.

-She is still very much a daddy's girl. She loves him to pieces.

-She and Spencer are best friends and worst enemies at the same time. They just adore each other but can't share if their lives depended on it. They'll get there in time.

Aaron:

-Weighs 13 lbs as of yesterday, nearly two weeks to his two-month checkup. That is more than either siblings weighed at two months. He's huge! His torso is so long he is wearing his 9-month onesies. I often wonder why he can't do some things yet and then realize it's just deceiving how big he is. He's still only 7 weeks old.

-He's starting to smile at me and coo! It makes my heart melt.

-He absolutely loves to sleep on his stomach, so we let him for afternoon naps. He sleeps on his back at night.

-His night sleeping is pretty erratic. Sometimes he only wakes once, but more often it is two or three or even more times.

-All his hair rubbed off, save a thick fringe on the back. Now it is all coming back in uniform in length and still dark. This kid will not lack for hair.

-He has long, beautiful eyelashes that would make any girl jealous.

-His eyes are still blue and fairly dark at the moment.

-He is still very chill. He only cries when he's hungry and I'm not feeding him fast enough. Though he is staying awake more now and doesn't quite know what to do with himself since he can't really grab things yet. He'll figure it out though. He does a lot of looking around, taking in the world.

Moving furniture

I get such an itch to change things up in my house sometimes. Since we're renting and have a limited budget for that kind of thing, mostly I just move furniture around and stuff like that. Plus I still haven't replaced my sander that broke, and that means I can't really build anything extensive for now. 

This week I switched up the kids' bedroom and the office/toy room a bit, plus switched our bedroom around some too. Now we have a fun reading nook in the office and toys in their bedroom. I switched the mini crib to the other side of the bed and switched which sides Bill and I sleep on. I don't know why I get such satisfaction out of changing things up a bit, but I really do. I think it scratches my need to create things on a regular basis. Last week it was the living room. We built a little shelf under the window for our plants and moved the room around to make it work. Oh, and we created a picture wall, expanding the few pictures we had up in that room. We're going to be here for several more years, so it's nice to find a few ways to improve things.

All the kids hanging out together playing games on the tablet.

He's starting to smile, but the best I've gotten on camera is a pleasant look.

The reading nook.

She wanted to wear Spencer's "jumpers."

Turns out Aaron adores sleeping on his stomach. So sometimes we do that and he will sleep for three or four hours. I check on him often, but then I do that when he's on his back too. It still feels so crazy when he sleeps that long.

Tell that isn't a happily asleep child. His face is so squishy and adorable.

She's finally started to smile for pictures when i ask her to. Yay for no more angry expression photos!